Tag: fuel

break·fast // brekfəst

The first meal of the day, generally consumed during the morning (unless you have a bizarre work schedule or really slept in late). The act of “breaking the overnight fast you had while sleeping.”

My father was a firm believer in never letting my sister and I leave the house without a belly full of food. I grew up with breakfast not only being the most important meal of the day, but also the largest. Generally he’d make a feast of eggs, hashbrown potatoes, bacon, & toast, and we weren’t allowed to leave the table until our plates were practically licked clean. We were late for school numerous times because we simply had too much food to eat and couldn’t chew fast enough. Looking back, this helped my metabolism significantly. Think about it: you’re consuming your highest number of calories first thing in the day, meaning you have a full day to work everything off. Breakfast provides you with the energy you need, and for a growing kid that loved to horse around at recess and pretty much ran everywhere instead of walking, this was vital.

Now that I’m no longer aiming for a growth spurt (physically), I’ve dialed back the amount of food for my weekday breakfasts. I’ve never been much of a morning person, nor do I have someone to scold me and insist I eat before I leave the house for work. Instead, I usually end up bringing my food to the office. And although I have actually tried bringing a full sized breakfast in with me (eggs, toast, and at the time turkey bacon), it’s pretty messy and gets cold quick when I get preoccupied with my work tasks.

My usual workday breakfast will vary depending on the season. During the warmer months, it’s easier to sip on a cool smoothie or chia seed pudding. In the cooler months, I’ll opt for something with complex carbs like oatmeal or a parfait.

Weekends are when I get wild, and go back to my roots. Breakfasts will be massive so that I have the energy to walk 3km to the farmer’s market afterwards for my week’s worth of fresh fruit & veg, walk back home to tend to the gardens, clean the house and then prepare lunch and dinner for the night (and if it’s Sunday, meal prep for the rest of the week). Pretty much everything finds its way onto my plate on Saturday and Sunday mornings, with the aim of covering at least half of my plate with a combination of fruits and vegetables. Farm-fresh omelets, hashbrown skillets, 3 ingredient pancakes, or fruit salad & avocado toast are not only simple to make but delicious and leave you with the fuel you need to start your day.